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2026 FIFA World Cup
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in three North American countries; 60 matches, including the quarterfinals, semi-finals, and the final, will be hosted by the United States, while neighboring Canada and Mexico will each host 10 matches. The tournament will be the first hosted by three nations. The United 2026 bid beat a rival bid by Morocco during a final vote at the 68th FIFA Congress in Moscow. It will be the first World Cup since South Korea/Japan in 2002 that will be hosted by more than one nation. With its past hosting of the 1970 and 1986 tournaments, Mexico will also become the first country to host all or part of three men's World Cups. The 2026 World Cup will also see the tournament expanded from 32 to 48 teams. Format Then-UEFA head Michel Platini had suggested in Jaunary 2015 an expansion of the tournament to 40 teams. FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced that he backed an expansion of the tournament to 48 national teams, including that of the host nation. This new format of the finals, raised from the previous 32 team format, was announced 4 October 2016. Infantino stated that the planned format of 40 teams in groups of four or five teams and his proposed 48-team format are on the table. Expansion concerns The proposal for expansion has been challenged by the European Clubs Association and its member clubs, citing a lack of consultation. For German national team coach Joachim Löw, he warned that expansion, as it was done for Euro 2016, will dilute the value of the world tournament because players have already reached their physical and mental limit. The decision on the number of teams, formats and the eligibility of confederations to bid was expected for October 2016, however in that month the number of teams was set at 48. There are five options for the 2026 tournament: * Keep the existing 32-team structure * Expand to 40 teams (8 groups of 5 teams) * Expand to 40 teams (10 groups of 4 teams) * Expand to 48 teams (8 groups of 6 teams) * Expand to 48 teams (16 seeds joined by 32 winners of a play-off round) Host selection The FIFA Executive Committee (now the FIFA Council) decided on 30 May 2015 that any country could bid for a World Cup provided that their continental confederation had not hosted the preceding World Cup. For the 2026 World Cup, this meant that bids from the Asian Football Confederation (which is to host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar) would not be allowed. Later, in October 2016, the FIFA Council approved the general principle that member associations from continental confederations of the last two hosts of the FIFA World Cup (i.e. the AFC and UEFA, the latter being due to host the 2018 World Cup in Russia) will be ineligible to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup; however, the FIFA Council will have the power to grant eligibility to member associations of the confederation of the second-to-last host of the FIFA World Cup (i.e. UEFA) and open the bidding process to any interested MAs from this confederation in the event that none of the received bids fulfil the strict technical and financial requirements. It was also approved that co-hosting of the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be permitted, not limited to a specific number, but evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and that for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the FIFA general secretariat, after consultation with the Competitions Committee, will have the power to exclude bidders who do not meet the minimum technical requirements to host the competition. Joint bids had been banned by FIFA after the 2002 World Cup. Therefore, the 2026 World Cup will be hosted by one of the remaining four confederations: CONCACAF (last hosted in 1994), CAF (last hosted in 2010), CONMEBOL (last hosted in 2014), or OFC (never hosted before), or potentially by UEFA in case no bid from those four meets the requirements. Under the initial decision, there would be a change from FIFA's previous policy, which applied for the 2018 and 2022 bidding process, and allowed any country to bid provided that its confederation had not hosted either of the previous two World Cups. However, the revised decision effectively means that this policy remains the same, except for the chance for potential eligibility of the second-to-last hosting confederation. Candidate cities and venues During the bidding process, there were 49 venues in 43 cities contacted to be part of the bid. 41 cities with 45 venues responded and submitted to be part of the bid (3 venues in 3 cities in Mexico, 9 venues in 7 cities in Canada and 38 venues in 34 cities in the United States). A first round elimination cut 9 venues and 9 cities, then a second round elimination cut an additional 9 venues in 6 cities while 3 venues in 3 cities dropped out due to FIFA's unwillingness to discuss financial details, reducing the total number to 23 venues, each in their own city or metropolitan area. The 23 candidate cities and venues will be narrowed down to 16 in June 2020 (3 in Canada, 3 in Mexico, and 10 in the United States): : A denotes a stadium used for previous men's World Cup tournaments (United States and Mexico only). : A denotes an indoor stadium with a fixed or retractable roof. Canada Mexico United States Broadcasting rights * – CTV, TSN, RDS * – Fox, Telemundo On February 12, 2015, Fox, Telemundo, and Bell Media's rights to the tournament were renewed by FIFA to cover 2026, without accepting any other bids. The New York Times believed that this extension was intended as compensation for the rescheduling of the 2022 World Cup to November–December rather than its traditional June–July scheduling, which falls during the heart of the National Football League season (where Fox is currently a main U.S. rightsholder), and the beginning of the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League seasons. Category:2026 FIFA World Cup Category:FIFA World Cup tournaments Category:2026 FIFA World Cup